Pirate Lady
by Forlay
Summary: Elizabeth wanders below deck and stumbles upon Anamaria. A conversation ensues in which both women reveal more about themselves than they intended. AnamariaElizabeth femmeslash


Title: Pirate Lady  
Author: Forlay  
Rating: PG (so mild...so unusual for me)  
Pairing: Anamaria/Elizabeth. No, I don't know why, either.  
Summary: Elizabeth wanders below deck and stumbles upon Anamaria. A conversation ensues in which both women reveal more about themselves than they intended.  
Author's Notes: I've wanted to write Pirates fanfic for weeks. I was intent on writing Jack/Will, since there's so much canon evidence for them...but no. My inner femmeslasher has decided that these two, who shared three lines in the movie, need to have a fic written about them. I'm debating whether that's bad or not.  
Thanks goes out to the potc_fic LJ community for giving me my first bits of feedback on this.  
  
Elizabeth wandered below the deck of the Interceptor. It was aimless wandering, meant to merely waste time. For all her romanticized ideas of life on a pirate ship, she was learning a harsh lesson. The idea of searching for the Black Pearl was exciting, but in practice it made for many long days, one hardly unique from the last.  
Elizabeth still wasn't used to the communal sleeping quarters she found below deck. She'd only been on a prolonged sea voyage once before, the crossing from England 10 years ago, and then she and her father had shared luxurious - for a navy ship - private quarters. Here on the Interceptor the pirates had been gentlemanly enough to give her the captain's quarters as her own, but that meant all of the crew crammed below deck, even the female pirate and interim captain of the ship - Anamaria, who Elizabeth was surprised to find napping, her large battered hat over her face, blocking out errant rays of afternoon Caribbean sun.  
Not wanting to disturb the woman - fierce as any of the pirates she had met - Elizabeth turned to leave, resigning herself to another afternoon in her quarters, when Anamaria spoke from beneath her frayed hat. "Leaving so soon, Lady?"  
"I'm sorry. I - I didn't mean to disturb you."  
Anamaria moved her hat from her face to her chest. "Ye'd've disturbed me less if ye'd've trampled down here like any of the oafs on this ship. I c'n sleep through a hurricane if need be. It's the creepin' o' mice that wakes me in the dead o' night."  
"Well, I'll let you continue your nap -"  
"No," Anamaria commanded as she sat up on the cot. "Ye had a reason fer comin' down here. What was it?"  
"I truly had no reason. I grew restless in my quarters -"  
"Will isn't enough to be keepin' ya' busy?" Anamaria asked, a sly smirk gracing her unusually smooth face.  
Elizabeth gaped at the pirate. "I beg your pardon?"  
Anamaria could see she'd overstepped her bounds with the proper lady. "I meant no disrespect, Lady -"  
"Miss Swann," she corrected crisply. "Will and I may both be acting under the flag of piracy at the moment, but I assure you we both still have a sense of propriety."  
"I understand, La - Miss Swann. Sometimes I forget, I admit, what life be like off a pirate ship, or out of a pirate port."  
As much as Elizabeth wanted to storm out to show her displeasure with Anamaria, it was inevitable the two would meet again; it was best to attempt to make amends now. It was impossible to hold a grudge on a pirate ship. Elizabeth gingerly sat on a barrel near Anamaria's cot. "How long have you lived amongst pirates?"  
Anamaria was surprised at the lady's sudden change of heart, but went with it. "Nearly all me life. My parents tried to raise me as a young lady in Tortuga, but they died when I was young. My choices then were a whorehouse or the sea. I gladly chose the sea."  
"I'm sorry," Elizabeth murmured.  
"About what? I haven't regretted a day of me life, Lady, an' neither should you."  
"I didn't - I mean - I only -"  
Anamaria laughed as Elizabeth fumbled for the right words. "Relax, Lady. Ye're talkin' to a pirate, not an heiress. It takes more'n that to offend me."  
Still flustered, Elizabeth looked around the hold, taking in, again, the bleak surroundings. "How can you survive here?" she asked softly. "It's so dark and filthy, and so many men."  
"It's my understandin' that Port Royal isn't overflowin' with society ladies, either," Anamaria pointed out. "Besides, this has been my life. Tortuga was never sparklin', an' as fer the men, ye prove early on ye're more like them than the whores on shore."  
"More like them?"  
"I can out drink and out shoot half this crew. And -" Anamaria hesitated in her explanation.  
"Yes?" Elizabeth pressed.  
"Well, let's say I have my share of fun in the brothels and bars when I'm in a friendly port."  
Elizabeth frowned as she struggled to comprehend this cryptic statement. "The brothels and -" she gasped with realization. She'd heard of women like Anamaria, there were rumors that a pair of them had even lived in Port Royal, but no one had ever spoken so openly of that sort of behavior.  
Elizabeth tried to discretely back away from Anamaria, but forgot she was perched on an unsteady barrel, and soon found herself on the damp floor, tangled in the ropes and fabric of her ill-fitting borrowed uniform.  
"Oh come off it, Lady," Anamaria said as she stood. "It's not bad as all that." She reached down and firmly grasped Elizabeth's wrist.  
"Unhand me!" Elizabeth shrieked.  
In a flash, Anamaria was on the deck beside the flailing Elizabeth, a hand clamped firmly over the lady's mouth. "As I said," the pirate hissed, "it's not bad as all that. It's hardly something to be shocked about an' ye will be keepin' quiet when I let ye' go, aye?"  
The gleam in Elizabeth's eyes was murderous, but she slowly nodded. Anamaria removed her hand. "Get away from me, filth," Elizabeth spat.  
Anamaria stood. "A fine one ye are to talk. How is my sin any worse than any o' the number ye've committed since ignoring the edicts of crown and father to throw in with pirates?"  
Elizabeth finally hauled herself to her feet. "Do not try to compare myself to you."  
Anamaria stared evenly at the frustrated lady before her. "I've seen a lot of reactions in my day, but yours be the strangest. Why are ye so upset, Lady?"  
"It's Miss Swann," Elizabeth sniffed. "And I'm not upset." Anamaria raised an eyebrow. "I don't need to answer you, pirate."  
"So I've gone from 'filth' to 'pirate.' An impressive change o' heart. That last be nearly a compliment from the likes o' ye."  
"Do not mock me."  
"I wouldn't dream of it," Anamaria said in obvious defiance of Elizabeth's order, "if ye just answer my question. I be a pirate, like ye said, I'm used ter gettin' me way." She took a step forward.  
Elizabeth fought the urge to step back. She lifted her chin to look the pirate woman in the eyes. "I hardly see how it's any concern of yours."  
"Don't want to talk about it, eh? It probably be a story I've heard a dozen times before, anyway. Perhaps ye should spare me the boredom."  
"I'm sure no one's had an experience quite like mine."  
"Try me," Anamaria said. She indicated Elizabeth should sit again, this time on a relatively steady cot. Elizabeth hesitated before accepting the offer, though she reconsidered that acceptance when Anamaria sat, legs spread like a man, on the barrel that had previously held Elizabeth.  
"Well - back in Port Royal - there were two spinster women who owned a home together. Rumors abounded about their life, as they were rather reclusive. My favorite was they were pirates, retired after a successful after a career of plundering the seas." Elizabeth smiled at her own naivety. "However, the most persistent rumors - from the boys in the alleys to my father's colleagues - were the women lived together - as man and wife do." She could feel herself blushing in spite of herself. "And - well - when the girls couldn't convince me to tell them which boy I fancied they - insinuated - I was like those women."  
"An' are ye?"  
"No!" Again Anamaria raised that infuriating eyebrow. "They're the ideas of bored children. And I'm sure no such relationship existed between those women. It was a matter of convenience. And now I have...."  
"Have who?" Anamaria pressed. "The Turner boy? A blind man could see ye want him."  
"But I can't have him. I'm engaged to the commodore. And sometimes...I fear I've lost Will to the pirate's life. I've never see him more alive than when he's out here."  
Anamaria smiled wistfully. "Aye. I can see why ye'd fear such a thing." She hesitated. "You know, Lady, if we find Jack and the Pearl, and Will wishes to join the crew, ye'd always be welcome aboard."  
Elizabeth laughed harshly. "Leave Port Royal and the commodore? My father wouldn't hear of it; there's only so much I can get away with. And in the event I could get away, Mr. Gibbs wouldn't allow it."  
"Ye could be under my protection, until we proved Gibbs wrong, that havin' us aboard is the best luck he could wish fer."  
"Under your protection? A pirate doesn't offer such security lightly. What would you demand in return?"  
Anamaria smiled slightly. Right where I want you, Lady. "Little. Just this." And with the speed and agility only a lifetime upon a ship could grant a woman, Anamaria had Elizabeth pinned back upon the cot and was kissing her fiercely.  
Elizabeth went stiff with shock, unable - and unsure if she wanted to - fight or return Anamaria's actions. A small part of her brain acknowledged how nice it felt to be near a warm, soft body with soft, full lips, another small part was telling her to fight, to not prove the girls right, but mostly her mind was blank. So Elizabeth laid still until shouts from above deck made Anamaria sit up. Immediately, Elizabeth felt a flush creep up her cheeks. She licked her lips nervously to find they tasted of the sea, but also of the unique warmth of a woman.  
"I'm needed up there," Anamaria explained as she crawled off of Elizabeth. "Stay down here, out of the way. That's the start of my protection." In a few long strides she reached the stairs.  
"But -"  
Anamaria turned back and placed a finger to her lips. "Nothing needs to be said, Lady. You've done enough to earn my protection. Think no more of it. I'm a pirate, after all. I'm accustomed to takin' what I want." She quickly pulled herself up the violently tilting stairs, leaving Elizabeth alone in the hold, jacket half torn off, her hair a mess, and the disquieting taste of the sea on her lips. 


End file.
